Child killer 'trial of the century' starts

The long-awaited trial of "Belgium's most hated man", alleged child killer Marc Dutroux, finally began yesterday nearly eight years after a spate of abuse of schoolgirls that convulsed his country and shocked the world.

The trial of the 47-year-old former electrician, who has been in custody ever since his arrest in August 1996, promises to be a long and emotional affair, lasting at least two months and hearing more than 450 witnesses.

But many Belgians doubt whether the trial will answer all of their questions. Many believe Dutroux lay at the sinister heart of a paedophile ring that encompassed politicians, judges and policemen.

Dutroux himself fuelled the conspiracy theories, even before the trial began, claiming that he was "used" by others.

"People want to believe that I am at the centre of everything. They are mistaken," he said, according to comments originally reported by Flemish-language television station VTM.

"I did things of which I was not the driving force. I was used as an instrument by others, who were themselves used as instruments by others," he said.

Dutroux is charged over the kidnapping, rape and beatings of six girls, four of whom died allegedly at the hands of the man who came to be known as the "monster of Charleroi".

Along with his three co-defendants he will testify later in the week via microphone from behind bullet-proof glass in the court chamber. He has worn a flak jacket during recent court appearances.

More than 300 police were deployed around the Palace of Justice in Arlon, a quiet town near the French and Luxembourg borders now besieged by hundreds of Belgian and foreign journalists.

The media scrum far outnumbered locals and other onlookers prepared to brave the snow and freezing temperatures outside the glass-fronted town centre courthouse.

In the coming weeks prosecution lawyers will rake up the traumatic events that started with Dutroux's arrest on August 13, 1996 by police investigating the disappearance of two young girls.

The girls, Sabine Dardenne, aged 12 at the time, and Laetitia Delhez, then 14, were rescued two days later from captivity in the cellar of a property belonging to Dutroux in Charleroi, south of Brussels.

They had been repeatedly raped, beaten and starved by the "monster of Charleroi", prosecutors say.

But worse was to come. Subsequent investigations unearthed the bodies of four other girls, including two eight-year-olds, in the gardens of other properties belonging to Dutroux. The four girls had been missing for a year.

Dutroux is charged with murder, rape, abduction and confinement in relation to the girls' ordeal, as well as the murder of an alleged accomplice. He faces life in jail if convicted.

He will be standing trial alongside his wife Michelle Martin, 44, his "right-hand man" Michel Lelievre, 32, and a fourth suspect, Michel Nihoul, who all face charges of kidnapping and complicity in the crimes.

Nihoul, 62, is said to have organised drug-fuelled sex parties for the Brussels social elite. It is his involvement in particular that has kept alive suspicions that Dutroux was part of a much bigger operation.

In 1996, fury at police and government incompetence culminated in a series of "white marches" in Belgium which at their height drew more than 300,000 people.

Belgium has waited a long time for this trial, and hopes are high that it will finally shed light on just what happened in that dark summer eight years ago.

Shortly before the trial began a man was arrested trying to set up a mock gallows outside the court. Some critics have called for the restoration of capital punishment for Dutroux.

"The hour of truth?" asked the daily La Libre Belgique in a front page dominated by a picture of Dutroux's face. Only the coming weeks and months will tell.